Its name is reminiscent of another independent hit “Little Miss Sunshine.” It’s even produced by the same team, stars Oscar winning Alan Arkin, and comes equipped with a similar plot of family dysfunction, yet something about this golden gem feels oddly like the movie “Waitress.” In this, a washed up cheerleader, Rose (Amy Adams) is now a single mother working as a maid. In constant crisis to find a babysitter for her son Oliver (Jason Spaveck) she often turns to her scam-artist-rascal-of-a-father (Alan Arkin). But when her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) quits her waitress job, the two join forces to run a biohazard cleaning company to rid the evidence from crime scenes. Somebody’s gotta do it… The job comes to Rose as a favor vis a vis her married detective lover (Steve Zahn) who tells her there’s a fortune to be made in cleaning up blood from a murder or suicide. And while upon arrival of the premises the bodies have been removed, their belongings and the emotional attachment to their homes, hasn’t. Sounds like a depressing plot, but instead it’s smart, funny, and quirky with a slow heart-felt unraveling to the build-up of the big secret the two sisters share. This secret by the way, could well contribute to the fact that neither of these under-achieving women have high self-esteem (though it should be mentioned Adams is very charismatic scrubbing blood from bathroom tiles.) Pretty soon it’s clear that their cleaning up is a sort of cleaning up of their own family’s past. As for Amy Adams in this role, following her dark portrayal in “Doubt”or her usual screwball comedies like “Miss Pettigrew” and “Enchanted,” its refreshing to see Adams have such a gentle, compelling and wide range. It’s just unfortunate this tiny film is referred to as ‘limited release’ because when in studio-box-office-doubt here’s a friendly reminder in the form of two words: “Slumdog Millionaire.” Three and a half tiaras
